ACtion Magazine - May 2014 - (Page 32)

Connected vehicle research The University of Michigan Transport Research Institute (UMTRI) has just released results of an online survey asking people in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia a series of questions about connected vehicles. Autonomous vehicleto-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication is already being deployed on a limited basis in Europe and will be required several years from now in several nations, including the U.S. It is being actively marketed on the Internet. Of the almost 1,600 respondents in the survey, about 75% of them said they believe that connected vehicles will reduce the number and severity of crashes and improve fuel economy, while 60% expect improvements in trafﬁc congestion and travel times. These are the advertised goals of V2V and V2I systems. However, about 30 percent indicated they are "very concerned" about security (from hackers) and about privacy (the systems track vehicle speed and location). More than 75% placed a medium value on integrating smart phones with the vehicle and a higher value on Internet connectivity in the vehicle. UMTRI is currently building a connected vehicle research center at the former Willow Run production plant that was built by Ford during WWII and later owned by GM. Utilizing only 30 acres of the 332-acre property, the center will have a test track with three miles of roadway that includes intersections, roundabouts, sidewalks, simulated buildings, trafﬁc signals and signs, streetlights, pedestrian benches and other obstacles such as construction barriers. The work done there will be key in implementing connected vehicle systems in the U.S. New Toyota engine family Toyota is set to introduce two newly-developed gasoline engines that achieve thermal and fuel efﬁciency improvements of at least 10% over current industry-wide values. The engines utilize combustion and friction loss-reduction technologies reﬁned in Toyota's hybrid engines. The ﬁrst two engines will form the base of a whole new series. One is a 1.3-liter gasoline engine operating on the Atkinson cycle used in hybrid vehicles, allowing it to reach a maximum thermal efﬁciency of 38 percent (25 - 30% is typical). The second is a 1.0-liter gasoline en- SMART SPLICE™ ULTIMATE SYSTEM Everything to Build or Repair Lines EXPANDED SEAL SLEEVE MORE SEALING AREA Tube to Hose Connector Line Terminator 45° & 90° Line Splice ANTI-VIBRATION TENSION RING - SUPERIOR SEALING VERSUS TRADITIONAL COMPRESSION FITTINGS - OE-APPROVED - 5-MINUTE REPAIR Ultimate System Tool Box Inline Service Port "T" 2014 32 ACTION * May 2014 Reader Reply gine, jointly developed with Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd., that has achieved maximum thermal efﬁciency of 37 percent. The new engines will be used in models scheduled for partial redesign in the near future, and a total of 14 engine variations will be introduced globally by 2015. IPCC reports greenhouse gas emissions accelerate A new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that global emissions of greenhouse gases have risen to unprecedented levels despite a growing number of policies aimed at reducing climate change. Emissions grew more quickly between 2000 and 2010 than in each of the three previous decades. The report, entitled Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change, is the third of three Working Group reports and part of the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report on climate change. The Report says it is still possible to limit the increase in global mean temperature to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. However, only major institutional and technological change will give a better than even chance that global warming will not exceed this threshold. Working Group Co-Chair Ottmar Edenhofer from Germany said, "Climate policies in line with the two degrees Celsius goal need to aim for substantial emission reductions. There is a clear message from science: To avoid dangerous interference with the climate system, we need to move away from business as usual." Scenarios show that the likelihood of limiting the increase in global mean temperature to two degrees Celsius requires lowering global greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 70 percent compared with 2010 by mid-century, and to near-zero by the end of this century. Scientiﬁc literature conﬁrms that even less ambitious temperature goals would still require similar emissions reductions. An average temperature increase of two decrees Celsius will produce dramatic and expensive but still manageable changes in global weather patterns. Estimates of the economic costs of emission reductions vary widely. In business-as-usual scenarios, consumption grows by 1.6 - 3 percent per year. Ambitious emission reductions would reduce this growth by around 0.06 percentage points a year. However, these estimates do not take into account the economic beneﬁts of reduced climate change. ❆ http://www.airsept.com http://www.macsw.org/imis15/MACS/Publications/ACtion_Reader_Reply/MACS/Publications/ACTION/ACtion_Reader_Reply.aspx?hkey=ac24bddb-c045-442a-813c-cbf05f88ac4d

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ACtion Magazine - May 2014

Selling the right things
Season opener
Outlook
Freeze Frame
Leonard's Law
Service Port
Virtual View
Last Watch
Member Profile
By the Numbers
Cooling Corner
Industry News
Association News
Letter to the editor
New Products

ACtion Magazine - May 2014